In the UK, tea bags are an office essential, we just couldn’t last a day without a few cups of tea. But, did you know that tea bags actually cause negative effects to the environment?
Many popular tea brands in the UK such as Tetley and PG Tips use polypropylene, a sealing plastic used industry-wide to fasten tea bags and to help keep their shape. Toxic chemicals are involved in the process of creating polypropylene, meaning it causes damaging effects on the environment.
Anti-plastic Campaigners
Tea bags have been the topic of concern for many anti-plastic campaigners over the years as they have been appealing to manufacturers to implement ‘greener’ options or to opt for loose tea to help save the planet. While this is a good idea, loose tea leaves are more expensive in comparison to mainstream, mass-produced tea bags and are, therefore, not an option to some brands.
The Co-operative
On average the Co-operative sell over 4 million boxes of tea bags each year, equating to more than 300 million individual tea bags. Therefore, they have taken action to help eliminate the use of plastic to ensure they create eco-friendly products for their customers, allowing them to have a guilt-free cuppa.
The 2018 Innovative
With this in mind, the Co-operative has teamed up with popular UK tea brand, Typhoo, to create its own-brand fair trade tea bags which are free from polypropylene. Instead of using polypropylene, they will use a new heat-sealing process to secure tea bags and ensure they hold their shape, while not tampering with the taste.
Not only this, but the tea bags are set to be constructed from fully biodegradable paper, which does not contain any elements of plastic.
Benefitting From Biodegradable Tea Bags
If this is developed effectively, the benefits will be enormous as, in the UK alone, we get through more than 60 billion cups of tea each year, with more than 90% of brewed tea made using tea bags (as opposed to loose tea leaves).[1]
So with this in mind, will your office be purchasing eco-friendly tea bags to help your office go green?
How Can We Help?
While Global Office Supplies haven’t yet entered the tea bag market, we can offer other ways to help your office to operate as eco-friendly as possible. If you want to start transitioning your office to a green office, Global Office Supplies are more than happy to help you along your journey. We offer a wide range of green office supplies and services to help you achieve your green office targets.
So next time you think about purchasing a bulk order of office supplies or pour yourself a nice cup of tea, think to yourself; “am I harming the environment in the process?”
Sources: [1] huffingpost.co.uk, [2[ greenmatters.com